PLASMA ARC WELDING

Operating Principle

Plasma arc welding is a constricted arc process.

The arc is constricted with the help of a water-cooled small diameter nozzle which squeezes
the arc, increases its pressure, temperature and heat intensely and thus improves arc stability,
arc shape and heat transfer characteristics.
Plasma arc welding process can be divided into two basic types:
Non-transferred arc process
Transferred arc process
Non-transferred arc process
The arc is formed between the electrode(-) and the water cooled
constricting nozzle(+).
Arc plasma comes out of the nozzle as a flame.
The arc is independent of the work piece and the work piece does
not form a part of the electrical circuit.
Just as an arc flame (as in atomic hydrogen welding), it can be
moved from one place to another and can be better controlled.
The non transferred arc plasma possesses comparatively less
energy density as compared to a transferred arc plasma and it is
employed for welding and in applications involving ceramics or
metal plating (spraying).
High density metal coatings can be produced by this process.
A non-transferred arc is initiated by using a high frequency unit in
the circuit.
Transferred arc process
The arc is formed between the electrode(-) and the work piece(+).
In other words, arc is transferred from the electrode to the work
piece.
A transferred arc possesses high energy density and plasma jet
velocity.
For this reason it is employed to cut and melt metals.
Besides carbon steels this process can cut stainless steel and
nonferrous metals also where oxyacetylene torch does not succeed.

 Transferred arc can also be used for welding at high arc travel
speeds.
For initiating a transferred arc, a current limiting resistor is put in
the circuit, which permits a flow of about 50 amps, between the
nozzle and electrode and a pilot arc is established between the
electrode and the nozzle.
As the pilot arc touches the job main current starts flowing between
electrode and job, thus igniting the transferred arc.
The pilot arc initiating unit gets disconnected and pilot arc
extinguishes as soon as the arc between the electrode and the job is
started.
The temperature of a constricted plasma arc may be of the order of
8000 - 250000C.

Applications
Microplasma welding
Microplasma was traditionally used for welding thin sheets (down
to 0.1 mm thickness), and wire and mesh sections.
The needle-like stiff arc minimises arc wander and distortion.
Although the equivalent TIG arc is more diffuse, the newer
transistorised (TIG) power sources can produce a very stable arc at
low current levels.
Medium current welding
When used in the melt mode this is an alternative to conventional
TIG.
The advantages are deeper penetration (from higher plasma gas
flow), and greater tolerance to surface contamination including
coatings (the electrode is within the body of the torch).
The major disadvantage lies in the bulkiness of the torch, making
manual welding more difficult.
In mechanised welding, greater attention must be paid to
maintenance of the torch to ensure consistent performance.
Keyhole welding
This has several advantages which can be exploited: deep
penetration and high welding speeds.
Compared with the TIG arc, it can penetrate plate thicknesses up to
l0mm, but when welding using a single pass technique, it is more
usual to limit the thickness to 6mm.
The normal methods is to use the keyhole mode with filler to
ensure smooth weld bead profile (with no undercut).
For thicknesses up to 15mm, a vee joint preparation is used with a
6mm root face.
A two-pass technique is employed and here, the first pass is
autogenous with the second pass being made in melt mode with
filler wire addition.
As the welding parameters, plasma gas flow rate and filler wire
addition (into the keyhole) must be carefully balanced to maintain
the keyhole and weld pool stability, this technique is only suitable
for mechanised welding.

 Although it can be used for positional welding, usually with current

pulsing, it is normally applied in high speed welding of thicker
sheet material (over 3 mm) in the flat position.
When pipe welding, the slope-out of current and plasma gas flow
must be carefully controlled to close the keyhole without leaving a
hole.

THERMIT WELDING

Operating Principle:

Typically, the ends of the rails are cleaned, aligned flat and true, and spaced apart 25 mm
(1 in).
This gap between rail ends for welding is to ensure consistent results in the pouring of the
molten steel into the weld mold. In the event of a welding failure, the rail ends can be cropped
to a 75 mm (3 in) gap, removing the melted and damaged rail ends, and a new weld attempted
with a special mould and larger thermite charge.
A two or three piece hardened sand mould is clamped around the rail ends, and a torch of
suitable heat capacity is used to preheat the ends of the rail and the interior of the mould.
The proper amount of thermite with alloying metal is placed in a refractory crucible, and
when the rails have reached a sufficient temperature, the thermite is ignited and allowed to
react to completion (allowing time for any alloying metal to fully melt and mix, yielding the
desired molten steel or alloy).

The reaction crucible is then tapped at the bottom. Modern crucibles have a self-tapping
thimble in the pouring nozzle.
The molten steel flows into the mould, fusing with the rail ends and forming the weld.
The slag, being lighter than the steel flows last from the crucible and overflows the mould
into a steel catch basin, to be disposed of after cooling. The entire setup is allowed to cool.
The mould is removed and the weld is cleaned by hot chiselling and grinding to produce a
smooth joint.
Typical time from start of the work until a train can run over the rail is approximately 45
minutes to more than an hour, depending on the rail size and ambient temperature.
In any case, the rail steel must be cooled to less than 370 C (700 F) before it can sustain the
weight of rail locomotives.
When a thermite process is used for track circuits the bonding of wires to the rails with
a copper alloy, a graphite mould is used.
The graphite mould is reusable many times, because the copper alloy is not as hot as the steel
alloys used in rail welding.
In signal bonding, the volume of molten copper is quite small, approximately
2 cm3 (0.1 cu in) and the mould is lightly clamped to the side of the rail, also holding a signal
wire in place.
In rail welding, the weld charge can weigh up to 13 kg (29 lb).
The hardened sand mould is heavy and bulky, must be securely clamped in a very specific
position and then subjected to intense heat for several minutes before firing the charge.
When rail is welded into long strings, the longitudinal expansion and contraction of steel must
be taken into account.
British practice sometimes uses a sliding joint of some sort at the end of long runs of
continuously welded rail, to allow some movement, although by using a heavy concrete
sleeper and an extra amount of ballast at the sleeper ends, the track, which will be prestressed
according to the ambient temperature at the time of its installation, will develop compressive
stress in hot ambient temperature, or tensile stress in cold ambient temperature, its strong
attachment to the heavy sleepers preventing buckling or other deformation. Current practice is
to use welded rails throughout on high speed lines, and expansion joints are kept to a
minimum, often only to protect junctions and crossings from excessive stress.

Applications:

exothermic welding is usually used for welding copper conductors but is suitable for welding
a wide range of metals, including stainless steel, cast iron, common steel, brass, bronze,
and Monel.
It is especially useful for joining dissimilar metals.[5] The process is marketed under a
variety of names such as ERICO CADWELD, ERICO CADWELD Plus, Thermexweld,
Quikweld, Tectoweld, Ultraweld, Techweld,TerraWeld,Thermoweld, Ardo Weld and
Kumwell.
Because of the good electrical conductivity and high stability in the face of short-circuit
pulses, exothermic welds are one of the options specified by the United States National
Electrical Code for grounding conductors and bonding jumpers.
It is the preferred method of bonding, and indeed it is the only acceptable means of bonding
copper to galvanized cable.
The NEC does not require such exothermically welded connections to be listed or labelled,
but some engineering specifications require that completed exothermic welds be examined
using X-ray equipment.